Tag: karen gillan

There was an interesting real-world subplot that developed last week when the “Avengers: Endgame” trailer dropped. Marvel Studios also released a poster for the film, and every actor whose character was featured got their name listed at the top, save one: Danai Gurira, who plays the Wakandan warrior Okoye from “Black Panther.”

This bit of info understandably irked some folks — Okoye is a great character and Gurira is awesome in the role. So it made perfect sense to question why her name was left off the top of the poster if her face was important enough to be included on the thing in the first place.

Her inclusion on the poster is particularly interesting because she is the only character on it who hasn’t been seen at some point in one of the two trailers or the Super Bowl commercial. So why in the world would she be on the poster if she isn’t a key character in the film? The answer, we can’t help but think, is that she actually is a key character.

It’s impossible to guess just how important she will be overall, given how secretive Marvel is being in general about “Avengers: Endgame” and the fact that Gurira has not been featured in any of the leaked set photos that have come out. And, of course, the fact that Marvel has not even really suggested that Okoye will be a key figure in “Endgame” at all.

But, again, there has to be some reason why they would put her on the poster, and I can’t help but think that it’s because Okoye will take up the mantle of the Black Panther after T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) becomes one of the victims of Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) deadly finger snap.

But what does that mean for her involvement in the plot of “Endgame”? She hasn’t been included in any of the team shots from the marketing, but then again neither has Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and there’s no question he’s going to figure in heavily to everything that goes on in the movie. But if I had to guess about the specifics of Okoye’s involvement, I would think that Wakanda would certainly be involved in whatever plan the Avengers eventually cook up since it has by far the best technology on the planet.

Since Shuri (Letitia Wright) is also a victim of Thanos’ snap (she’s listed as one of the missing in the first “Endgame” trailer), our heroes won’t be operating at peak efficiency — but just having those stores of vibranium will no doubt be helpful. And if the Avengers are doing stuff in Wakanda, then Okoye will by extension definitely be around.

Making any guesses beyond that would be very difficult since we know so little. But you can be sure that Okoye is not the type to want to take advantage of the situation in order to keep her Black Panther powers — T’Challa was her close friend and she, like all our other surviving heroes, will definitely be up for doing whatever it takes to undo the unfathomable damage Thanos caused.

But to find out what exactly “whatever it takes” will involve for Okoye specifically, we’ll probably just have to just watch “Avengers: Endgame” when it hits theaters on April 26. Not long now.

So a few months back we spotted some leaked toy designs that indicated that our heroes would be sporting some very future-looking white uniforms in “Avengers: Endgame,” and that leaked turned out to be completely legit as the third trailer for the impending megablockbuster (you can watch it here) ends by showing most of the surviving Avengers wearing exactly that.

It’s also notable who we don’t see wearing them: Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Rocket (Bradley Cooper), Bruce Banner aka the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). We have no context for this scene, whether it happens early on or late in the movie, but it’s worth pointing out that in the brief shots we get of our heroes fighting in what looks like a thoroughly war-torn landscape –which feels like a climax-ish situation — none of them are wearing these things.

Now, you may be tempted to think these uniforms are just an aesthetic choice, but I don’t think that’s the case. I think there’s an actual practical reason for the Avengers to pop these things on, and it involves travel into the Quantum Realm and/or through time.

It’s fairly well known at this point among the nerds that “Avengers: Endgame” will delve into some previously unused fantastical comic book mechanics to try to undo Thanos’ snap that killed half of everyone in the universe — specifically, time travel. And so they would likely need some kind of suit tailored to that use since that kind of thing isn’t an innate ability. Like how Ant-Man has to wear his suit that was specifically made for shrinking and enlarging himself if he wants to, you know, shrink or enlarge himself.

And if the Avengers are going to travel through time, perhaps by using the Quantum Realm as a shortcut (remember that line about a “time vortex” from “Ant-Man and the Wasp”), then it stands to reason that they would need special suits to actually do that.

But this is all still speculation, of course. Marvel is doing a pretty great job of not giving away anything even while including all these seemingly revealing shots. But that’s par for the course — they literally put Tony Stark crying over Spider-Man’s ash pile in one of the “Infinity War” trailers and nobody was the wiser about it.

So we’ll see. We’re only a month and a half away now. “Avengers: Endgame” lands in theaters, as you probably know, on April 26.

Marvel Studios has been putting out footage from “Avengers: Endgame” at barely a trickle thus far, with the first trailer and the Super Bowl LIII spot avoiding anything that could resemble action, and the tease at the end of “Captain Marvel” just showing our heroes hanging out at Avengers HQ.

But that trend has finally ended, as this third trailer and fourth look overall at “Avengers: Endgame” finally brings us some action. It’s all out of context and we have no idea what we’re looking at, but nonetheless there’s action.

“Avengers: Endgame” is just that — the endgame of the first 11 years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, bringing us the conclusion of the story that began in earnest in “Marvel’s The Avengers” back in 2012. This new trailer makes a number of nods to that history, opening with clips from the original “Iron Man” movies that started all this off back in 2008 as the present-day Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) ponders the path he’s taken that ended with him getting marooned in space in the wake of “Infinity War.”

The trailer also looks back at “Captain America: The First Avenger” and “Thor,” other origin movies from Phase 1.

The big moments from this trailer, though, show us some heroes fighting in just an absolutely torn-up environment that we have not seen before. In that location we see: Rocket (Bradley Cooper) perched on Iron Man’s shoulder in that place; Nebula (Karen Gillan) charging at somebody or something; Captain America (Chris Evans) doing that dramatic tightening of one of the straps on his shield that we saw in the Super Bowl trailer; and perhaps the shot of Ant-Man pulling some kind of lever is also in that place, as the aesthetic is pretty similar.

We also get a few new shots of Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), which is always exciting because it seems like he has some kind of mysterious new role to play in this story given that he has clearly taken on (returned to) the identity of Ronin now.

The Jonas Brothers are back together, but maybe not after Tuesday’s appearance on James Corden’s “Late Late Show,” when the band played “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts” together.
The first food up was Beetle Marma…

EXCLUSIVE: Samuel Goldwyn Films has taken U.S. rights to Collin Schiffli’s dramatic thriller All Creatures Here Below which stars Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Karen Gillan, Bird Box’s David Dastmalchian and Once Upon a Time‘s Jennifer Mo…

EXCLUSIVE: She’s still got a final season of Game of Thrones to come, but Lena Headey is moving on. She has been set to co-star in Gunpowder Milkshake, the action thriller that Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado will direct for Studiocanal and…

It’s a cliche by now that a lot of folks watch the Super Bowl primarily for the commercials, and for movie studios the Big Game tends to be a pretty big marketing day. So you tune in for the football and the funny ads, and you’re treated to new trailers for some of the biggest movies of the year.

And there’s little doubt, at this point, what will be the biggest movie of 2019. After “Avengers: Infinity War” grossed more than $2 billion worldwide and ended on probably the most insane cliffhanger in the history of the cinema blockbuster, everyone is expecting “Avengers: Endgame” to make a similarly gargantuan splash.

This is an unusual year for the Super Bowl in that we aren’t expecting a whole lot of movie trailers during the game this year. For whatever reason, studios seem to be shying away from the spectacle this time. But will Disney be among those skipping the Super Bowl this year?

Officially, there’s no word on whether “Avengers: Endgame” will make an appearance during the Super Bowl, but we are expecting a new trailer Sunday evening.

The marketing cycle for the film started fairly late for one of these things, with the first trailer dropping in early December. For a mega-blockbuster like “Endgame,” we expect three trailers before it lands in theaters on April 26. Around the release of “Captain Marvel” in March is a natural place to put one, and so the Super Bowl likewise would make perfect sense as far as timing.

But that’s just our guess — we don’t actually have any official word about an “Avengers: Endgame” trailer for the Super Bowl. But we would be surprised if the game comes and goes without one.

On the other hand, given how cryptic and relatively low key we expect the marketing for this movie to be — Marvel doesn’t want to give away anything — they could very well just skip past the Big Game confident that they don’t have to make a huge push to get folks out to see how this whole thing ends. Anything is possible.

Israeli directors Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado, the duo behind Big Bad Wolves, are certainly swinging for the fences with their next project. According to The Hollywood Reporter, it’s a movie “in the assassin genre” that takes place across multi…

Danny DeVito has joined the cast of the untitled sequel to Sony’s “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

DeVito joins leads Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Kevin Hart, along with returning cast members Jack Black and Karen Gillan. It was announced on Thursday that “Crazy Rich Asians” and “Ocean’s 8” star Awkwafina would be joining the cast.

DeVito will have a key role in the film, but his specific role is being kept under wraps, along with the storyline to the film.

Jake Kasdan is returning to direct the sequel, and he co-wrote the screenplay along with Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner. Kasdan is also producing along with Matt Tolmach and Seven Bucks.

“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” which was released in 2017, brought in $962.1 million worldwide at the box office and was an updated take on the 1995 fantasy film starring Robin Williams, in which a group of four students are transported into the world of a jungle, adventure video game and take on the form of heroic avatars.

DeVito currently stars on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” and will next be seen in Disney’s live-action reboot of “Dumbo.” He’ll follow that up with a voice role for “The One and Only Ivan,” which also comes from Disney and also happens to be about an elephant.

It’s not super heavy on detail, which is to be expected this far out, but there are still details we can glean about the plot of this crazy thing. So let’s do dive in.

1. Tony Stark is adrift in space in the Guardians’ ship

All of the first minute of the trailer is spent with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr), who is adrift in space in the Milano seemingly about to run out of food and air. Tony is recording a goodbye message to Pepper Potts. It seems likely this could be the very beginning of “Avengers: Endgame,” with a rescue to mirror Thanos’ attack on the Asgardians in “Avengers: Infinity War.”

The question is: who’s doing the rescuing? Could Captain Marvel show up on the stage that early in this?

Nebula (Karen Gillan) was the only other survivor from Titan, and I guess the ship that she rammed into Thanos during the big battle in “Infinity War” wasn’t fit to fly after she wrecked it.Of course, if Nebula is with Tony, why wouldn’t they be able to get anywhere? She would know how to fly the Milano, you would think. Hmmm.

3. Thanos is still wearing the burned up Infinity Gauntlet

We get a brief look at Thanos (Josh Brolin) on that planet he retired to after doing mass murder on a scale hitherto undreamt of. He’s set up his armor as a scarecrow, and he’s still wearing the Infinity Gauntlet. We know it’s not completely broken — we saw him use the burnt-out gauntlet to teleport out of Wakanda at the end of the battle there. But is there a reason he’s still wearing it? Maybe he knows that the Avengers will need it if they wanna undo what he did? That’s how it goes in the comics, anyway.

4. They know Spider-Man got dusted

There’s a shot in Avengers HQ with Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) looking at two pictures and crying. The pictures are of Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Peter Parker (Tom Holland). Presumably this means the Avengers think they both got dusted. That makes sense for Scott, since he really did disappear at the time of the snap as he was in the Quantum Realm at the time. But they would have known Peter went to space with Tony Stark in pursuit of the Black Order.

Of course, there’s a pile of other questions this item inspires. Like: Could that scene happen after Tony is back on Earth? Do any of the other Avengers even know Spider-Man’s secret identity? I guess Pepper or Happy could have told them, presuming they survived. Anyway, this is an interesting nugget, at least.

5. Clint Barton (aka Hawkeye) is now Ronin

There’s been a lot of speculation that Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) would show up in “Avengers: Endgame” as Ronin — who in the comics is kind of a Russian Captain America type of character who was married to Natasha Romanov/Black Widow back in the day. It looks like the Ronin part of that is definitely true, and it’ll be interesting to see if their backstory as a married couple is also part of this.

One thing that seems clear, at least, is that given the look on Clint’s face and the narration laid over that shot (“We lost friends, we lost family, we lost a part of ourselves”), it seems fairly safe to guess that his family did not survive the finger snap, and that’s why he reverted to this old identity.

I mean, of course they have a plan. But it’s still important that it’s there. Unfortunately, there is not much here to guess what that plan is — they appear to at least be heading out somewhere when Black Widow utters her “This is gonna work, Steve,” because it looks like they’re in a quinjet at during that scene.

But maybe the bigger clue about the plan comes with the stinger at the end of the trailer.

7. Scott Lang (aka Ant-Man) is out of the Quantum Realm

And there we are. This was the big “EndGame”-related moment from “Ant-Man and the Wasp” — Scott goes into the Quantum Realm and gets stuck there when Hope Van Dyne, Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym get snapped. Now, it seems incredibly unlikely that Scott just managed to somehow get out without learning something important down there.

In fact, it seems like the logical assumption is to think that when Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) does show up it’s to save Tony, but my hunch is more in the direction of Carol Danvers popping up in the Quantum Realm and helping Scott. Because I think that would explain better why she hasn’t been on the galactic stage at all in two decades.

And that’s all we got right now. Like I said previously, there’s not a whole ton to chew on here. But even so we can’t help but get hype when watching it, because “Avengers: Endgame” is shaping up to be the blockbuster event of, well, maybe ever.

The actors join Will Smith and Tom Holland in the animated film about two spies, Lance and Walter. One is a super cool and charming spy, and the other invents the super cool gadgets Lance uses. When an event happens, they must learn to rely on each other like never before in order to save the world. It is based on Lucas Martell’s 2009 animated short “Pigeon: Impossible.”

The film is expected to have a ’60s spy flick feel and look but it will take place in a modern context. It will take place in a stylized version of Washington D.C.

The new trailer for the indie drama All Creatures Here Below gives us the first look at actors Karen Gillan and David Dastmalchian, a young couple that is on the run after an impulsive crime.
Gillan and Dastmalchian, who are both members of the Marvel …

EXCLUSIVE: Avengers and Jumanji star Karen Gillan has joined Harrison Ford and Dan Stevens in Call of the Wild, the 20th Century Fox adaptation of Jack London’s famous 1903 adventure novel set during the Klondike Gold Rush. Production on the CGI/…

Fans have been speculating about all kinds of things about “Avengers: Infinity War” since the movie came out. Directors Joe and Anthony Russo and screenwriters Chris Markus and Steve McFeely layered their culmination of 10 years of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies with references that cut right back to the MCU’s beginnings, and there are plenty of clues about what the future might hold scattered within, too.

In the home video release for “Infinity War,” the Russos and Markus and McFeely give feature commentary to go with the movie, and they reveal all kinds of interesting things about the film — plus, they confirm a few fan theories about what’s going on in the movie that might give hints about the events of “Avengers 4.” Here are all the interesting, cool and cryptic things we learned from the director commentary on “Infinity War.”

Kenneth Branagh was the voice of the Asgardian distress call

“Infinity War” opens almost directly after “Thor: Ragnarok,” the MCU movie which takes chronologically right before it. That movie ended with Thor (Chris Hemsworth) leading his people away from a destroyed Asgard. “Infinity War” picks up with Thanos (Josh Brolin) attacking the Asgardian “ark” ship. We hear a distress signal from the Asgardian ship at the start of the movie. Turns out, the person calling for help is Thor” and “Thor: The Dark World” director Kenneth Branagh, or Sir Kenneth if you’re feeling especially British.

Thanos assaulting Xandar to get the Power Stone was in a previous draft of the script

Markus and McFeely discuss how they went through multiple iterations of the “Infinity War” script, because they were developing it even before other MCU movies — notably “Black Panther” and “Thor: Ragnarok” — were completed, or even written. That meant there were multiple versions of the script. In the finished version of “Infinity War,” Thanos gets the Power Stone, which was left in the care of the Nova Corps of the planet Xandar in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” off-screen — he has it when he attacks Thor and the Asgardians.

One version of the script included a huge battle where Thanos attacked Xandar, but it was cut because it was pretty much a foregone conclusion, McFeely and Markus said. They figured the audience wouldn’t need yet another battle in which Thanos emerged victorious with an Infinity Stone, especially because that battle wouldn’t add much to the characters or plot.

The most interesting part of this nugget, though, was that in that version of the story, Thanos and Gamora ran into each other during the battle on Xandar Meaning in that version the crucial “find Gamora and get her to take Thanos to the Soul Stone” part of the plan wouldn’t just have been the result of an odd coincidence.

One scene that’s key to understanding the later events in “Infinity War” is when Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) uses the Time Stone to look at “alternate futures,” the possible outcomes of the battle with Thanos. In that scene, Strange says he sees only one outcome out of 14 million in which the heroes defeat Thanos. Not much more is said after that, but the implication is that his actions from that point, including surrendering the Time Stone to Thanos to save the life of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), are all part of the sequence of events that need to happen to create that victorious future.

During the commentary, the filmmakers talk about Doctor Strange’s character and what he knows at several points, and more than once the Russos and the screenwriters confirm that Doctor Strange knows a lot more than he’s letting on — the term “ominous prophecy” comes up during that scene. While they’re cryptic about it, they’re still strongly implying that everything that happened on Titan, at least, was part of Strange’s plan based on his vision.

The “Infinity War” arc for Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and his alter-ego, the Incredible Hulk, is that Banner can’t summon the Hulk to help fight Thanos’ lieutenants, the Black Order, when they attack Earth. Hulk starts the movie by getting absolutely thrashed by Thanos, and after that, every time Banner tries to get the Hulk to come out and fight, he refuses.

The Russos put to bed the idea that Hulk refused to come out to fight the Black Order because he was afraid of Thanos after his definitive defeat. Instead, the issue is more of a culmination of Hulk and Banner’s ongoing issues — the two sides of the same person hate each other and are constantly battling for control of their shared body. Hulk resents the fact that Banner only wants him around when he needs to smash things. In the movie, Banner is forced to deal with his own problems, rather than continually rely on Hulk.

They blew on Tom Holland’s ear to make his hair stand up (not really)

When Peter Parker (Tom Holland) is introduced during the Black Order’s attack on New York, his hair stands up — visual representation of his “spider-sense” that helps Peter detect and avoid danger. In the commentary, the Russos joke that to get Tom’s hair to stand up, they just “blew gently on his ear.” They reference the fact that they made same joke during an “Anatomy of the Scene” video for the New York Times, but don’t reveal how the effect is really achieved in “Infinity War.” Turns out, it’s just CGI.

Even the filmmakers don’t really know how much time passes over the course of the movie

During the scene when Peter Parker sneaks aboard the Q ship, the Russos and the screenwriters took some guesses at just how much time passes between Thanos’ arrival and the snap at the end of the movie. They didn’t have a firm answer, putting it probably about two days, at the outside. They’re just like us!

Thanos’ plan isn’t a plot hole, it’s a character thing

The filmmakers spent a lot of time talking about the inner and emotional life of Thanos, especially in terms of his relationship with his adopted daughter, Gamora (Zoe Saldana). During the scene on Knowhere, in which Thanos uses the Reality Stone to trick Gamora into thinking she killed him, they talk about how messed up Thanos is — because even though he’s manipulative and abusive, he thinks he’s been good to Gamora.

That led to a discussion of Thanos’ overall plan, and a “plot hole” a lot of people have brought up since the movie was released: If Thanos can use the near-limitless power of the Infinity Stones, instead of killing half of all life in the universe (which he says is to stop the suffering and death created by too many people competing for not enough resources), why not just double all the resources in the galaxy?

Well, apparently that wasn’t a permanent enough solution for ole Thanos, an egotistical maniac with a messiah complex who is on a quest to save the universe his way and no one is going to be able to convince him his plan sucks.

And why not just use the Reality Stone if it can, like, alter reality?

While discussing Thanos’ use of the Reality Stone to trick Gamora, the Russos also brought up a time when a fan questioned why Thanos couldn’t just use the Reality Stone to enact his plan, since it seems to alter the physical makeup of reality. We see it turn real objects to bubbles and people into ribbons or rocks; why bother gathering all six Infinity Stones if this one is so cool? The answer is that, really, the Reality Stone just doesn’t have enough power. The filmmakers also mentioned that while the Reality Stone seems to have an incredible amount of power, it’s mostly illusory. When it turns Drax (Dave Bautista) and Mantis (Pom Klementieff) into rocks and ribbons, respectively, the effect doesn’t last because it’s more of a short-term trick.

The movie’s inciting incident is Thanos finding out about the Soul Stone

One question that lingers in “Infinity War” is why Thanos hasn’t gotten around to grabbing up all the Infinity Stones before now. In the past, we’ve seen him try to gather them using intermediaries — he sent Loki (Tom Hiddleston) to conquer Earth and steal the Tesseract for him in “The Avengers,” which contained the Space Stone, and he dispatched Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) to get the Power Stone in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” But why did it take Thanos so long to go on his all-out campaign to get the stones? According to Markus and McFeely, the game-changer was when Thanos found out that Gamora knew the location of the Soul Stone.

The Soul Stone was the only Infinity Stone that was never teased in the MCU before “Infinity War,” and in the movie, Thanos reveals that he tortured Nebula (Karen Gillan) and found out that Gamora knew of the stone’s location. The screenwriters say that it was that knowledge that turned the tide for Thanos; he previously used agents to go after the stones because he didn’t want to tip off the universe to his genocidal plan and have everyone array against him. When he found out that Gamora could lead him to the Soul Stone, he kicked off his campaign to get the other stones in earnest, creating the events of the movie.

The idea to make Red Skull (Ross Marquand) the guide to the Soul Stone on Vormir served a purpose for the script, but it also fulfilled a longtime wish for the movie’s writers. The pair have written all three of the “Captain America” movies, and really wanted to bring the Red Skull, who was the villain in “Captain America: The First Avenger,” back to the MCU. Vormir gave them that opportunity, since they said they needed a reliable guide to the Soul Stone whose information audiences would believe immediately.

As an added bonus, go back and rewatch “The First Avenger” to see for yourself how well Red Skull’s appearance in “Infinity War” is supported by his fate in the earlier film.

Portions of “Infinity War” and “Black Panther” were being made simultaneously, which meant that Joe and Anthony Russo didn’t know a lot of the ins and outs of Wakanda. The decision to set the third act of “Infinity War” in the country was made before “Black Panther” was released to critical and audience acclaim. When the “Black Panther” actors showed up for their big battle scene, though, they already knew their characters — so the powerful Wakandan chants led by M’Baku (Winston Duke) and T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) were ad-libs by the actors.

It’s not too big of a tease for the future that the “Infinity War” directors consider Shuri (Letitia Wright) the MCU’s smartest super-genius, especially since it’s the reason the heroes bring Vision (Paul Bettany) to Wakanda to get the Mind Stone removed from his head. But with some fans speculating that Shuri could be the successor to Tony Stark and Iron Man in the future of the MCU, it could be loaded comment.

Rocket’s quip about ‘space dogs’ came from a focus group

The Black Order uses an army of multi-limbed alien lizards to attack Wakanda’s energy shield, and the heroes have to fight a horde of the beasts. After the Russos showed the movie to an early test group, one person described those aliens as “space dogs.” The directors said they thought the description was funny enough to turn it into a line for Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), which he uses while firing away at the creatures alongside Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), shouting, “Come and get some, space dogs!”

On Titan, when the Guardians of the Galaxy, Tony Stark, Peter Parker and Doctor Strange manage to tie up Thanos, they very nearly get the Infinity Gauntlet off his hand. Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) rockets over a few seconds later, as everyone struggles to keep Thanos tied up, and says, “I thought you’d be hard to catch — for the record, this is my plan.” The joke about the plan was an ad-lib by Pratt.

There was a draft of the script in which Captain America didn’t show up until Wakanda

Markus and McFeely wanted the arrival of Captain America (Chris Evans) to carry a huge amount of weight, coming after the character’s two years of exile following the events of “Captain America: Civil War.” They achieved that with Cap’s entrance in the Edinburgh scene, alongside Falcon (Anthony Mackie) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), but in some of the other drafts of the script, the screenwriters wanted to push the entrance even farther. One draft, they said, had Cap’s first appearance being in Wakanda, when he rockets out of the trees to save Vision’s life as he grapples with bad guy Corvus Glaive (James Michael Shaw). The screenwriters say they were told holding Cap back for that long would be a huge mistake — and then, after thinking about it, decided those people were absolutely right.

Captain America’s big character arc is in ‘Avengers 4’

Grappling with so many characters in one movie was tough, which left Captain America without much character development in “Infinity War.” The screenwriters said that, since they knew “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Avengers 4” would be two parts of the same story all along, they were able to leave the bulk of Cap’s personal story to the second part. During the commentary, the filmmakers mentioned that Cap has “a big story” in “Avengers 4.”

Speculation has run rampant about the nature of the Soul Stone, which, in the comics, contains a whole world where the souls of people killed by the stone are trapped and reside. Fans have figured that the orange place where Thanos winds up briefly after he achieves the snap, where he meets a young Gamora, was the Soul World. In the commentary, the Russos said, “Of course it’s the Soul World,” which likely means the place will have a big part to play in “Avengers 4.”

There’s an actual story reason why Spider-Man took longer to die than everyone else

Most of the characters who fell victim to Thanos’ cosmic finger snap turned to dust in a second or two, but Peter Parker managed to hold out for nearly 30 seconds after uttering his much-memed “Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good” line. Apparently, according to Joe Russo, they decided when they filmed the scene that they wanted to draw it out a bit to increase the emotional impact of the whole thing, and they justified it by telling Tom Holland that “you’re using your strength as Spider-Man to fight this.” Which is a fascinating, and believable, bit of lore that they apparently came up with on the fly.

Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet were permanently damaged by the snap

When Thanos snaps his fingers at the end of “Infinity War” and gets his wish, a huge amount of energy is expelled, and the Gauntlet and Thanos’ arm are singed by it. In fact, the snap looks like it hurts Thanos pretty badly. The Russos confirmed in the commentary what they’ve said before: using the Gauntlet took a toll on Thanos. What’s interesting is that the filmmakers used the word “permanently” to describe the damage done to both the Mad Titan and his weapon. Sounds like that could have implications for Thanos and the Gauntlet in the future, and maybe, how they can be beaten.

Also, imagine if Thanos is dead at the beginning of “Avengers 4,” having succumbed to that gaping chest wound. Hoo boy.

Eagle-eyed fans will notice that when Thanos comes out of his hut on the unnamed planet at the end of “Infinity War” after achieving his goal, there’s a figure in the bottom-right corner of the frame. It’s a scarecrow, one made out of Thanos’ armor from the beginning of the movie. That’s a nod to the Marvel comics, in which, after the “Infinity Gauntlet” storyline, Thanos leaves the life of villainy to become a farmer, and uses his armor to make a scarecrow in his field.

It took 10 years and 19 movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for Thanos to make his play to wreck the universe in “Avengers: Infinity War,” and one big lingering question is, why’d he wait so long?

After all, Thanos (Josh Brolin) is ludicrously powerful. In “Infinity War,” we see him barely break a sweat kicking the Hulk’s ass, fight off the combined might of dozens of heroes more than once, and oh yeah, hold infinity stones in his hands without being vaporized. He’s so powerful that he manages to get his hands on all six Infinity Stones pretty much in a day or so.

But if he could stomp his way through everything Earth’s mightiest heroes could throw at him, why is he just now doing it? Why, prior to “Infinity War,” in “The Avengers” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” did Thanos rely on other villains to get the stones for him?

According to “Infinity War” directors Joe and Anthony Russo and screenwriters Chris Markus and Steve McFeely in the “Infinity War” commentary track, the answer to those questions begins with Thanos’ two adopted daughters, Gamora (Zoe Saldana) and Nebula (Karen Gillan).

As explained in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” Nebula hated Gamora growing up because Thanos would force the two to fight each other. The loser of a fight was punished by having a body part replaced with cybernetics to make her stronger, and Nebula always lost to Gamora. Thanos also routinely humiliated Nebula by comparing her constantly to Gamora in front of everyone else.

This abuse led them to both escape from and oppose Thanos during the events of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” and in “Guardians 2,” they finally put aside their differences and become allies. Nebula then vows to try and kill Thanos, and free his other “adopted” children.

During “Infinity War,” we learn she made good on that vow, only to be captured. Thanos then searched around in her robot brain, and as we see during the scene with Thanos, Gamora and Nebula, discovered a memory recording of Gamora telling Nebula that she destroyed the map to the Soul Stone to keep it out of Thanos’ hands.

That, according to McFeely in the commentary, was “the catalyst for the whole movie.” Having “figured out where the Soul Stone was because he captured Nebula on his ship and rooted around in her brain and found out that Gamora knew where the Soul Stone was,” Thanos is inspired to finally make his play for universal domination.

But why? In the commentary, Joe Russo explained further: “The reason why [Thanos] has not gone after the stones before is because the minute he does, the forces of the universe are gonna line up against him. If he doesn’t know where the Soul Stone is, then what is the point.”

In other words, if the people of the universe were tipped off to the fact that the big scary guy with a huge army was seeking godlike power, they could have mobilized to beat him. So, when he acted openly, he needed accomplish his aims as quickly as possible. Thanos might be incredibly powerful after all, but he’s not invincible, and neither are the armies and lieutenants who serve him – the longer it takes him to find all six stones, the more time there is for his enemies to stop him. Which is why he preferred to use proxies before now.

And until he knew the location of the Soul Stone, that necessary quickness wasn’t an option.

It’s ironic that Gamora’s unwillingness to see Nebula tortured inadvertently doomed the universe. But that’s in keeping with the Mad Titan’s M.O. — he always forces his enemies to choose between killing someone they love, or letting him get what he wants, and every time it pays off.

Then again, refusing to accept Thanos’ sadistic choice might end up being the only way the heroes can defeat him in the long term, if Doctor Strange is any guide.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” stars Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Michael Rooker have weighed in on the firing of the franchise’s director James Gunn.

On Sunday, Pratt quoted a Bible verse from the Epistle of James in the New Testament: “Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters. Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

Saldana, who like Pratt doesn’t mention Gunn by name in her tweet, wrote, “It’s been a challenging weekend I’m not gonna lie. I’m pausing myself to take everything in before I speak out of term. I just want everyone to know I love ALL members of my GOTG family. Always will.”

Rooker, who played outlaw Yondu Udonta in the first two films of the franchise, said he would be quitting Twitter “over the ongoing bulls—,” but would remain on Instagram for the foreseeable future.

“This account will be inactive after today. We’re very tired & upset over the ongoing BULLS—… neither I nor my rep will use Twitter again,” he wrote on Sunday. “Twitter sucks and I want nothing to do with it. Thank you to all who gave kind words & support. See you on Instagram.”

Dave Bautista has been defending the filmmaker since Disney announced it would be severing ties with Gunn on Friday. He wrote that day that Gunn is “one of the most loving,caring,good natured people I have ever met.” But on Sunday, his tweets were far more heated, saying that Gunn’s removal had much bigger implications than just the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“What will you do when the #cybernazis attack you?” asked Bautista in a tweet on Sunday. “Who will stand by you? Who will cowardly distance themselves from you? Who will punish you for horrible JOKES in the past instead of defending you for INSPIRING millions? MILLIONS!!!”

Sean Gunn defended his “brother James” on Saturday, writing that working on the “Guardians” films changed the director into being a “more open-hearted than the guy who needed to get a rise out of people by making nasty or offensive jokes.”

Lastly, Karen Gillan chimed in, telling her followers on Sunday saying that she sends “love to every single member of my GOTG family.”

Gunn, who has reportedly finished the script for “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” was removed from the project after alt-right provocateur Mike Cernovich dug up tweets from him prior to joining Disney. They were soon picked up by conservative media and led to Disney studio chairman Alan Horn announcing his dismissal.

See tweets from the “Guardians” cast below.

“Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters. Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

I will have more to say but for right now all I will say is this..@JamesGunn is one of the most loving,caring,good natured people I have ever met. He’s gentle and kind and cares deeply for people and animals. He’s made mistakes. We all have. Im NOT ok with what’s happening to him

What will you do when the #cybernazis attack you? Who will stand by you? Who will cowardly distance themselves from you? Who will punish you for horrible JOKES in the past instead of defending you for INSPIRING millions? MILLIONS!!! #Redemption#injustice@JamesGunn

What happened here is so much bigger then G3, @JamesGunn ,myself,@Disney etc. This was a #cybernazi attack that succeeded. Unless we start to unite together against this crap, whether people are offended are not! …it’s going to get much worse. And it can happen to anyone https://t.co/AMZEd0tfqb

(Note: This post contains massive spoilers for both “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” so read on at your own risk!)

The Marvel Cinematic Universe was gutted by the events of “Avengers: Infinity War” and the arrival of Thanos, a villain so strong even the combined might of nearly every MCU superhero couldn’t stop him.

You know what happened by now: Despite a valiant effort to stop Thanos (Josh Brolin), the Avengers and their allies failed. The Mad Titan collected all six Infinity Stones on his Infinity Gauntlet, and with a snap his fingers used their united power to erase half of all life in the universe. All because Thanos believes mass murder on a cosmic scale will rid the universe of its problems and free the survivors to create sustainable utopias.

That’s not how the heroes (or audiences) saw it though. Cue Peter Parker’s “Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good,” and fans worldwide agreeing wholeheartedly as a huge number of their favorite heroes dissolved into ash.

How huge? As if millions-of-sequels-suddenly-cried-out-in-terror-and-were-suddenly-silenced huge.

Here’s everyone lost to Thanos’ finger snap, from “Infinity War” through “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”

Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan)

Captain America’s best friend Bucky was among the first to disappear in Wakanda, which is especially a bummer given how hard he fought to reclaim his life and identity after being brainwashed by HYDRA to become the Winter Soldier.

T’Challa, the Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman)

Wakanda’s king vanished as he helped Okoye up, apparently leaving the nation without a king, again.

Captain America’s buddy Sam has been coming into his own as an Avenger across the last few movies he’s appeared in, but despite being a major force in the Battle of Wakanda, in the end, the coin-flip of Thanos’ snap got him.

His anger at what Thanos did to Gamora wasn’t enough to keep Star-Lord from fading away after the battle on Titan — but if there’s a Soul Realm hidden inside the Soul Stone, Peter and Gamora might be reunited.

Drax (Dave Bautista)

Most of the Guardians of the Galaxy vanished after the finger snap, including Drax, whose death is even more tragic because Thanos killed Drax’s family years before, and his Infinity Gauntlet finished the job.

Mantis (Pom Klementieff)

Right alongside Drax, Mantis faded away as well, after spending most of her life as a slave to Ego (Kurt Russell) as seen in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2”.

Peter Parker, Spider-Man (Tom Holland)

The most heart-wrenching moment in “Infinity War” finds Peter succumbing to disintegration as he begs his mentor, Tony Stark, to help him. Mr. Stark, we don’t feel so good either.

Of all the people to disappear, Doctor Strange was seemingly the most calm and at peace. He spent part of “Infinity War” viewing potential futures with the Time Stone, and so it’s safe to say that losing to Thanos, and then apparently dying, were actually part of his long-view plan to win the day. We just have no idea how.

Former SHIELD agent and Fury’s long-time bodyguard and right-hand woman, Maria and Fury’s disappearance likely severs the Avengers from any lingering SHIELD infrastructure that might have helped them in “Avengers 4.”

“Ant-Man and the Wasp” didn’t catch up to the events of “Infinity War” until its post-credits scene, after Hank and his daughter Hope were finally reunited with his wife, Janet, the original Wasp. Unfortunately, they didn’t have long together.

Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly)

Hope went right along with her father, and seemingly no one in the Ant-Man crew had any idea that the events of “Infinity War” were taking place in Wakanda during the end of “Ant-Man and the Wasp.”

Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer)

After 30 years stuck in the Quantum Realm, Janet was rescued with just a few days before Thanos’ attack zapped her out of existence. That’s a pretty big bummer.

While Thanos managed to kill a whole bunch of people, he didn’t kill everyone — just half of everyone. That means quite a few heroes are still alive. We don’t know about the fates of a lot of folks — like Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) or Peter Parker’s pal Ned (Jacob Batalon). Here’s the list of people we know for sure didn’t disintegrate.

Steve Rogers, Captain America (Chris Evans)

The First Avenger lost his best friend to Thanos, but more than that, he failed in a way Cap has never suffered before. His final line of the movie — a simple, “Oh god” — was just as horrifying as watching so many heroes fade away.

Tony Stark, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.)

Tony has been traumatized by his fear of something like Thanos’ invasion, and Tony’s inability to stop it, since “The Avengers” and the alien attack Loki (Tom Hiddleston) led on New York. That attack was backed by Thanos, and it seems with the Mad Titan’s arrival, Tony’s worst fears have been realized.

Thor’s track through “Infinity War” is incredibly tragic, and it’s clear in a few scenes that he’s just barely holding himself together after the losses of Loki and Heimdall (Idris Elba). After finally becoming the leader his people needed, Thor was unable to save them, and he seems to feel responsible for letting his barely contained pain control him such that he struck Thanos with Stormbreaker in the chest, so he would suffer, rather than the head to kill him instantly.

Natasha Romanoff, Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)

Natasha has been making major strides to become a better person in the post-SHIELD era, but it was clear that losing to Thanos hit her very hard.

Bruce Banner, the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo)

His constant struggles with the Hulk side of his personality left Banner struggling in “Infinity War” between not wanting to be the Hulk, and needing the Hulk. Losing to Thanos is definitely going to exacerbate their internal conflict.

Rhody fought alongside Cap and crew in Wakanda, and became closer friends with Sam Wilson during the battle. Losing Sam hit Rhody hard, as did the fact that Thanos was able to do something so devastating, and the Avengers weren’t able to stop him.

General Okoye (Danai Gurira)

Okoye’s loyalty to T’Challa, and more importantly, the throne of Wakanda, is a defining part of her identity — so when her king vanished before her eyes, she was obviously and incredibly crushed.

M’Baku also stands as a fierce leader and protector of his people, and while we didn’t spend much time with him in “Infinity War,” it was clear losing so many with no way of stopping it was a huge blow.

Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper)

Rocket lost just about everyone to Thanos, though at the end of “Infinity War” he doesn’t even know the extent of it, since he was on Earth with Thor. It’s losing Groot, his best friend and, in a real sense, his son, that ravages Rocket — and one wonders how he’ll be able to recover.

Nebula (Karen Gillan)

No stranger to pain and loss, Nebula was the most stoic of the heroes. After arriving on Titan to try to kill Thanos, she watched the disintegration knowing full well what had happened. Nebula seems likely to be the one character whose life isn’t upended by the snap. She has one goal: kill Thanos. Nothing has changed that.

While Scott wasn’t present for “Infinity War,” like everyone in the universe, he was affected by it. Unfortunately, Thanos snapped his fingers exactly when Scott was briefly diving into the Quantum Realm during the post-credits scene of “Ant-Man and the Wasp.” Since Hank, Hope and Janet disappeared back at normal size, there seems to be no one to pull Scott out of the Quantum Realm, apparently marooning him there. Or is there….

The state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be totally up in the air after Thanos snapped his fingers in “Avengers: Infinity War,” but the Guardians of the Galaxy will return — in some form. And now their return has a script.

“Guardians of the Galaxy” writer James Gunn took to social media to announce the fact that he’d finished the screenplay, posting a photo of the title page. As a caption, he wrote “Every bit of my heart.”

Gunn also posted the same shot on Instagram, where he gave a little more context. When one fan wrote, “Finished already?” Gunn replied, “Already? I’VE BEEN WRITING FOR OVER A YEAR.”

Of course, we’ve known for a long time that there would be another “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but we don’t know too much else about it. Back around the release of “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2,” there was some discussion that the next movie could include the character Adam Warlock, a powerful superhero who, in the comics, is part of the “Infinity Gauntlet” storyline that was adapted into “Infinity War.” The post-credits scene in “Guardians 2” teased Warlock’s arrival, but he hasn’t shown up yet. Gunn has said publicly the earliest the character might appear in the MCU is “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3,” so we’re not expecting Warlock’s presence in “Avengers 4,” either.

And speaking of “Infinity War,” the state of the universe is pretty dire following the end of that movie. When Thanos (Josh Brolin) snapped his fingers and wiped out half of all life in the universe we also lost most of the current Guardians membership. That included Groot (Vin Diesel), Drax (Dave Bautista), Mantis (Pom Klementieff) and Star-Lord (Chris Pratt). And Gamora (Zoe Saldana) had already been killed by Thanos earlier in the movie. Really, the only Guardian left is Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), along with the Guardians’ frenemy Nebula (Karen Gillan)

Everyone has speculated that Thanos’ work will be undone somehow in “Avengers 4,” since other characters who have future movies — Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), to name a few — were also among the disappeared. We have a pretty good idea that the Guardians will survive “Avengers 4” to return in “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3.” We also know for sure, per a Collider interview with Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, that “Guardians 3” is set after “Avengers 4.”

But Gunn has also said that Guardians 3 marks an end of sorts for the Guardians as we know it, tweeting last week that the film “will end this iteration of the Guardians and complete the story of the three films.” In the comics, lots of heroes have been part of the Guardians of the Galaxy at one point or another, so we’ll likely see a new lineup going forward, but who might be in the next squad is anybody’s guess.

One potential clue, though, is a just-announced new Marvel comic series, “Asgardians of the Galaxy,” which debuts in September. That team will include characters like Skurge (played by Karl Urban in “Thor: Ragnarok”) and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson in “Thor: Ragnarok”). Skurge seemingly died in “Ragnarok” and Valkyrie was absent from “Infinity War,” but we saw her neither evaporate nor die at the hands of Thanos — so it seems very likely she’s still alive and out there somewhere. “Infinity War” also goes a long way to establish a relationship between Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the Guardians, especially Rocket, the only surviving member.

So an “Asgardians of the Galaxy” series combining some of the current Guardians and characters such as Valkyrie and even Thor seems like it could be a possibility. We’ll be waiting a long while to find out, in any case: “Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3” doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’s currently expected to drop in 2020.

In May, George Clooney arrived in Sardinia to shoot Hulu’s hot “Catch- 22” TV series, the latest production to land on the Italian island where Italy’s industry will convene June 15-18 to celebrate and bolster the crossover between high-end film and TV…

When “Avengers: Infinity War” finally hit theaters, it brought together stories from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It also ended with a huge cliffhanger and some major repercussions for Marvel’s movies going forward.

There’s another year before “Avengers 4” shows up to explain what’s happened and resolve the story, and already, fans are putting all their mental powers and Marvel comics knowledge into guessing at what could happen with Thanos (Josh Brolin), the Marvel heroes and the Infinity Stones.

Fans mostly are trying to figure out how the heroes might defeat Thanos and undo the end of”Infinity War.” That ending, of course, saw Thanos getting hold of all six Infinity Stones and using them and his Infinity Gauntlet to cause half the people in the universe to cease to exist. In the comics, the heroes manage to undo that action, and fans theorize that the MCU won’t allow half its heroes to remain as piles of dust for long.

“Infinity Wars” fan theories range from relatively plausible to fairly weird, drawing on ideas about multiple universes, cosmic entities and unseen characters. Here are some of the wildest Avengers fan theories out there right now.

Death helps out

“Infinity War” adapts a lot of the stuff about Thanos that makes it into the comics, but it skips over one of his key motivations: He’s in love with Death. That’s Mistress Death, the metaphysical manifestation of the concept, who Thanos repeatedly tries to impress in the comics in hopes of wooing her. Obviously, “Infinity War” skips that part of his whole “murder half the universe” plan. As directors the Russo brothers and writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus have put it, introducing a new character in Mistress Death (along with Thanos), plus the idea of living embodiments of metaphysical concepts, was a little too much heavy lifting for the movie.

But since “Infinity War” gave Thanos a lot of the focus, there could be room to add another character in the sequel. We also know that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been willing to get a little weird with its cosmic goings-on — the Infinity Gauntlet itself is a big wish-fulfilling device, and finding Red Skull (Ross Marquand) as the guardian of the Soul Stone suggests some weird, unknowable stuff. In the comics, Mistress Death stood against Thanos after he wiped out half the universe, along with a ton of other cosmic heavy hitters, such as the Elders of the Universe — including the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) and the Collector (Benicio del Toro). Potentially, she could pop up to help out here.

The Quantum Realm leads to the Multiverse

The positioning of “Ant-Man and the Wasp” on the release calendar between “Infinity War” and “Avengers 4,” as well as Marvel’s teasing that the “Ant-Man” sequel will reveal what Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) were doing during “Infinity War,” suggests the movie will influence the conclusion of the Thanos story. (For a whole lot more on how “Ant-Man and the Wasp” could factor into “Avengers 4,” read this.) The assumption so far is that the thing that will matter to the Thanos situation is contained in, or has to do with, the Quantum Realm, the super-small, subatomic universe reachable only by shrinking. But nobody knows what might be found there, or what role the Quantum Realm could play.

One fan theory suggests the Quantum Realm might be a bridge to the Multiverse. In the Marvel comics, there isn’t just one universe in which the action takes place, but rather several parallel universes that are all different. In fact, the main comics continuity takes place in one universe (known as Earth-616), while the MCU composes another (Earth-199999). If the Quantum Realm leads to other universes, that could give the heroes a chance to visit places to gather their Infinity Stones from those universes, allowing them to use Thanos’ power against him. It might be a big leap, but travel between the universes has occurred before in the comics, and would expand the MCU in some useful ways.

Riffing on the Multiverse idea is that Thanos’ universe-massacring “snap” didn’t actually kill anybody. Instead, the Infinity Stones whisked all those folks off to another universe, where they’re still alive — and could potentially make it home to their own universe.

Nebula could wind up the villain of “Avengers 4”

Thanos’ daughter Nebula plays a major role in the “Infinity Gauntlet” comics storyline from which “Infinity War” is largely adapted. In his efforts to impress Mistress Death, Thanos didn’t go straight to gathering the Infinity Stones and killing half the universe. First, he started by torturing Nebula (his granddaughter in the comics) in incredibly horrific ways, burning her and leaving her so broken that she was basically borderline mad.

In the comics, it’s Nebula who ultimately undoes Thanos’ destruction of the universe, after he kills pretty much all the heroes and wrecks most of the super-powerful cosmic beings out there. When Thanos ascends to near-godhood thanks to the Infinity Stones, he takes on a cosmic, ethereal form, with his spirit leaving his body. Nebula grabs the gauntlet off his unguarded body and uses it to heal herself, and then she controls the universe. But she’s tricked into restoring the universe to its state 24 hours earlier, saving everybody. (Here’s everything you need to know about how the story went in the comics.)

Fans speculate Nebula (Karen Gillan) survived Thanos’ culling so “Avengers 4” could use her in a similar way. If she gets the Infinity Gauntlet off Thanos, she’ll surely get her revenge on her Mad Titan father — but she’s also not the most stable person, and could easily become a problem to be dealt with in “Avengers 4.” Who knows what a Nebula-shaped universe could look like.

Thanos didn’t make it

At the end of “Infinity War,” Thor (Chris Hemsworth) shows up just as Thanos gets hold of the Mind Stone with his new beefed-up Stormbreaker Axe and buries it in the Mad Titan’s chest, doing serious damage. Thanos survives long enough to snap his fingers and make his wish to wipe out half the universe come true. Then he bails, stepping backward through a Space Stone portal to make his escape. Right before that, though, he finds himself in an orange-tinted place with young Gamora (Zoe Saldana) (seemingly the Soul World, a place that exists inside the stone in the comics). In the closing moments of the movie, an injured but alive Thanos settles down to watch the sunrise over “a grateful” universe, but what if he didn’t actually survive the battle?

Thanos appeared to be very hurt by the use of the Infinity Gauntlet, and the events of “Infinity War” are heavily focused on the Soul Stone and how it works. A dead Thanos would fit in a continued focus on the Soul Stone. But his death would also create new issues — specifically, the lack of anyone powerful enough to wield the Infinity Gauntlet to undo what Thanos had done. It might even lead to a new requirement of teaming up with Thanos in order to revive him, if his soul is trapped in the Soul Stone as “Infinity War” might be implying, so that he can fix the damage he’s done.

Skrulls have invaded Earth, and they have a part to play

Part of the story we know will be told in “Captain Marvel” is that of an alien race called the Skrulls waging a war against another group of aliens, the Kree. We saw the Kree and their interstellar empire briefly in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” but while Skrulls are a major part of the Marvel comics universe, they have yet to show up in any other movies. The Skrulls have shapeshifting capabilities, meaning they can mimic human form and blend in on Earth, and some can even take on the powers of the people they mimic, creating superhero versions of Skrulls. (We’ve got a deeper dive on the Skrulls and “Captain America” right here, and here’s a big rundown of how “Captain Marvel” might factor into the Thanos conflict.)

The Skrulls show up a fair amount in the Marvel comics, and while “Captain Marvel” might resolve the Kree-Skrull war on Earth during the 1990s, it seems doubtful that would be the end of the Skrulls altogether. In fact, there’s some speculation that Loki’s invasion of Earth with the Chitauri aliens in “The Avengers” could have covered for a more clandestine Skrull invasion. If there are still Skrulls on Earth, they could potentially pop up to be a part of the Thanos conflict once they’re introduced in “Captain Marvel,” serving as either villains to be dealt with or, possibly, allies against the Mad Titan. After all, it’s the Skrulls’ universe, too.

There’s a seventh Infinity Stone

Another possibility fans have brought up is that there’s another Infinity Stone out there, one which houses the overall consciousness of all seven stones. We’ve seen in the MCU movies the stones have some kind of sentience or life — in “Infinity War,” the Mind Stone tries to warn Vision (Paul Bettany) about Thanos, for instance. In the “Ultraverse” storyline of the Marvel Comics, the Infinity Stones weren’t just created at the Big Bang: They were once part of an all-powerful being called Nemesis. Lonely, she broke her power apart into the stones and scattered herself across the universe, with the seventh stone, the Ego Stone, housing Nemesis’ consciousness. So there could be another stone out there for the heroes to find and use. It could remove Thanos’ capabilities by reviving Nemesis.

There’s also another precedent for a seventh Infinity Stone. One short-lived element of the comics stories has Thanos using the stones to create a seventh, synthetic stone, which was able to hold the powers of the other six stones. He planned to extinguish all the stars in the universe with its power. We know Shuri (Letitia Wright) scanned the Mind Stone to save Vision (who might still be alive). Between her information and what Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) discovered in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” making a new stone could be possible.

There are souls in the Soul Stone, and they’ll fight Thanos

The Soul Stone in the comics is the home of the Soul World, and souls of people killed by the stone wind up inside it, allowing its user to access them and their powers. A prevailing fan theory about “Infinity War” is that everyone who ceased to exist thanks to Thanos’ snap didn’t die, but that instead their souls are held in the Soul Stone. The movie already suggested Gamora’s soul was held inside the stone, so it’s not a huge stretch.

The fan theory about the Soul Stone suggests that the heroes inside the stone could work together to find a way to fight Thanos from within his own seat of power. There’s some precedent for that in the comics, too. In “Infinity Gauntlet,” a character we haven’t seen in the MCU yet, Adam Warlock, basically hung out in the Soul Stone for most of the fighting against Thanos, biding his time. When Nebula got the Gauntlet away from Thanos, Warlock used his connection with the stone to create pain in the glove, causing Nebula to take it off so he could snag it. We don’t know how Doctor Strange or any other heroes potentially trapped in the Soul Stone might oppose Thanos, but their new form could give them an edge the Mad Titan doesn’t expect.

There are other Infinity Stone seekers, and they’ll matter

When Thanos journeyed with Gamora to Vormir to find the Soul Stone, they ran into its keeper, the Red Skull. The villain of “Captain America: The First Avenger” had some cryptic things to say, but basically, he talks about how the Space Stone rejected his attempts to possess it, and he’s now bound to the Soul Stone, destined to lead people to it but unable to possess it himself. The Red Skull also mentions that Thanos is not the first person to try to take the stone — which raises some questions about what happened to those other folks, and if they actually failed to get it. (Here’s some more on Red Skull’s possible role in “Avengers 4.”)

The theory here is that other powerful beings who attempted to possess the stone and are now, potentially, bound to it like the Red Skull, and could be arrayed against Thanos, maybe even by the stones themselves. The idea of other people who tried to possess the Soul Stone leaves open a big question of who they are and what their deal might be.